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Just before i set off to Glastonbury Festival for the Unfaiground a few things came together in a weird culmination of events from several different strands. 10 days before i left we met on Portobello Road to discuss the promotion of a collaboration i was doing with Pills and dollar Bills. Around the table were, Attollo art,Graffik gallery, Pills and dollar bills and myself, June is a bugger for me, Glastonbury breaks me every year, I return a shell of myself and can’t face leaving the bed for daze. The festival ends on the 29th so the proposed date of the 1st was put back to the 14th… It was all still a stretch!

I got so much done before i left for the unfairground, but still it was a hell of a schedule when i got back. Add a large install into Home House members club (see next post) to the list of a solo show, a large mural to be done in a day it was going to be a tough week.

The show
Show photos by Bronwyn Boyle

Cant believe we got a Chelsea hero to wear a shirt! Thanks Mikel!Well we managed it all, can’t say it was easy, but with the help of Jay, ollie, Kate, Vestalia, Tamsin, Rashid, Webbo, Dani, Bronwyn and joy it was a dam sight easier!

Just left Dubai after a whirlwind week of a show, Art Dubai, and a spot of painting on JBL Walk. Urban Art is a pretty new thing for the United Arab Emirates and almost unknown in Dubai, so i was pretty impressed with the turn out at the courtyard gallery for the private view. You don’t get as diverse a crowd any where, Emirates Bikers on huge custom Harley’s mixed with Dubai’s glamourous art set and street artists from Beriut & Abu Dabi. The show POP Wall, mixed works from the Graffik Gallery’s stable of artists and middle eastern artists curated by the Courtyard gallery, flowing arabic handstyles next to western stencils and islamic pop art works, a great show that gelled to show a common humour and attitude.It’s not so easy to find spots to paint in Dubai, there’s no tagging, no flyposting, despite an abundance of building site hoardings and amazing spots. With cans of paint hard to source and at an incredible cost (almost $24 a pop), not to mention strict rules and penalties its not hard to work out why. Coupled to the fact i was painting large piles of trash i was amazed to finally get something street side. I have to thank Otto and his team at the Ocean View Hotel for letting me play on their hotel front, just on JBL Walk. By way of thanks i popped a few framed works around the hotel. If you want to convince someone something is art its often handy to have some whacking great gold frames to make the point.
Thanks to all who came to see the show, it runs till the 17th of April so if you didn’t get a chance to come down to the preview there is still time yet. A huge thank you to all who helped make this trip possible from Graffik, Ollie and Jay, who set the whole thing up and facilitated an amazing stay. From Courtyard, Samia and Nadine who were amazing hosts, put on an great show and found me spots to paint and The Ocean View Hotel, Otto and his team gave us free reign of the hotel and generally looked after our wants and need. Thanks all, see you next year?

Had a fun time with the ‘Made in Chelsea’ crew yesterday, the glamourous Sophie Hermann & Victoria Baker-Harber lent a hand to paint some Dotmaster stuff on the back wall of Graffik gallery, Portobello road. A funny morning, filming the girls painting with Mark Vandelli turning up to critique with his own unique style. The whole thing should be aired sometime in April. During the morning the girls taught me some valuable style tips.

1. Always make sure when painting to have the appropriate footwear.

2. You can get away with any outfit with gorgeous hair.

3. Skinny girls still look skinny in boiler suits…. but don’t like the experience. (full body shots have been with held on the requests of the girls).